Civic Group May Lose Out News Of Reserve Funds May Kill Contributions

August 7, 1985|By Donna O'Neal of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — County and city officials say they may withhold $45,000 in funding commitments to the Osceola County Committee of 100 after learning the organization has $85,705 socked away in reserve accounts.

Most officials contacted Monday said they were surprised because the reserve fund was not mentioned by the committee when it requested funding for 1986. The committee showed only an operating budget of $80,000.

Officials with the city and county say they want an explanation for the extra funds. Some question whether the Committee of 100, a private organization formed in 1971 to attract industry to the area, needs public dollars.

Bill McCarty, executive director of the committee, acknowledged Tuesday that the organization has $85,705.29 in certificates of deposit and money market accounts. That includes $3,673.56 in a checking account.

He said the committee needs some rainy-day money for unexpected expenditures such as financing recruitment trips or being host to visiting industry representatives.

Some of the money probably will be used next year, McCarty added. However, the projected budget he presented to Kissimmee commissioners July 9 did not list the extra cash.

''We were all under the impression they were barely making ends meet,'' Kissimmee Commissioner Ken Maher said. ''That was the whole idea with getting them on their feet. And, apparently, they're on their feet.''

The county and municipalities have contributed money since 1981 for promotion, advertising and to entertain committee clients. The county provides $25,000 and Kissimmee gives $15,000 annually. St. Cloud's share has varied from $1,000 to the $5,000 requested this year.

Other committee funds come from $200 annual membership fees.

County commission Chairman Mike Bast said he will lobby against donating Osceola's share this year. ''I think it's difficult to justify giving them $25,000 when they've got $85,000 sitting there for them to use.''

Bast, who is on the committee's board of directors, said he learned of the reserves at a directors' meeting two weeks ago. He plans to bring up the issue at county budget hearings this week.

''I'm not saying we're withdrawing our support from the Committee of 100,'' he said. ''But they've been able to build up a cash reserve, and I think it's time to spend it.''

Officials in Kissimmee and St. Cloud say they also plan to look further into the matter before granting any more funds.

This is not the first time the committee has raised public officials' ire. The St. Cloud City Council last October considered withdrawing its financial support after that city questioned whether it was getting its money's worth.

McCarty said he is disappointed with officials' latest reaction, saying government funding also is needed to attract more industry.

''An industrial development program can be as large or as small as a community chooses to make it,'' McCarty said. ''We can't make it a better program if we are handicapped by a lack of funds.''

Budgets of neighboring industrial development groups range from $109,100 earmarked next year by the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce to $600,000 budgeted by the Industrial Development Commission of Mid-Florida, which promotes Orlando and Orange and Seminole counties.

Those figures exclude cash reserves. Lakeland chamber President Gene Engle said its Committee of 100 is just forming. Although the chamber carries cash forward, it has not held reserves in its industrial development budget up to now, he said.

Roy Harris, president of the Mid-Florida organization, said it has reserves between $150,000 and $200,000 -- or 25 percent to 30 percent of its budget. In comparison, the Osceola group's reserves exceed its total budget by $5,000.

St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce president Richard McConahay, also a committee member, said the chamber carries only about $5,000 in reserve. ''That $85,000 seems a little high to me.''

McCarty said half of the Osceola committee's $85,000 came from issuance fees on industrial revenue bonds sold in 1984 and earlier this year. The county in 1982 agreed to give the committee proceeds from the .5 percent fee on the tax-free bonds, sold to raise money for private industry.

The other half of the reserves has accrued by conservative spending, McCarty said. The figure was about $6,000 in the mid-1970s.

''I don't know what that reserve figure should be -- whether it's $40,000 or $80,000,'' he added.

No reserves were shown in the committee's funding request to Kissimmee. Instead, the committee showed the $45,000 in government contributions, $29,000 in membership fees, $5,000 in interest income and $1,000 in miscellaneous income for an operating budget of $80,000.

The extra revenues were not listed because they are not projected income for 1986, McCarty said. He also was not sure how much the committee directors would want to budget at the time the governmental funding requests were due.

''I wouldn't report to them public officials that I was in a hole, either, unless we needed an increase,'' he said.

McCarty said a final budget will be prepared at the committee's budget workshop next Monday.